Venerable
Pachomios of the Iviron Skete
of the Iviron Skete
A simple monk of the Iviron Skete whom snakes did not harm, reposed in 1967; venerated by the faithful, not formally canonized.
- Reposed
- 196720th century
- Place
- Iviron, Mount Athos
- Order
- Venerables
Life
Saint Pachomios of the Iviron Skete, a venerable monk, was born in 1896 in the village of Tayforion, near Gallipoli in Eastern Thrace, with the name Nikolaos Asimis, the son of Panagiotis and Maria. He came to Athos on 20 May 1929, was tonsured a monk on 30 November 1932 and lived in the Cell of the Holy Apostles in the Skete of the Forerunner of Iviron, as a disciple of Father Neilos. Of the seventy years of his life, forty were spent in the skete. He fell asleep on 22 October 1967.
Father Basil of Stavronikita, who lived four years in the skete, wrote of him with warmth: a simple and blessed elder, with a child's smile, whom nobody could hurt. He took snakes in his hand, and his face grew brighter the more his hand trembled (from Parkinson's disease). Those who knew him honoured him as a saint. He rests in the cemetery of All Saints in the skete. He is honoured by the faithful, without synodal canonization.